Cancer

What is Pleomorphic Sarcoma?

When cancer develops in the muscles and bones, then it is known as sarcoma. It is not a tumor. There are two types of it, namely, the soft tissue sarcoma and the osteosarcoma.

Pleomorphic sarcoma

rather belongs to a mixed type of this ailment and is malignant by nature. It is also known as malignant fibrous histiocytoma. This article tries to gain further insight on the rare form of soft tissue neoplasm.

What is Pleomorphic Sarcoma?

When soft tissues like the muscles, fat, nerves, deep skin tissues and the blood vessels are affected, condition is known as soft tissue sarcoma. If the bones are affected by cancer, then it is known as osteosarcoma.

60 percent of soft tissue sarcoma is diagnosed in the arms and legs. The malignant fibrous histiocytoma type of this cancer is most common in older adults. Apart from the mentioned site of origin, the rogue cells are also found to develop in the interior regions of the back of the abdomen.

Owing to its malignant nature, the ailment has the ability to spread to fresh and remote locations of the body. Though it originates in the fibrous tissues of the arms and legs, it can affect organs like lungs as well.

Whenever organs like lymph nodes and lungs are affected by cancer, it implies that the disease cancer is in its advanced stage. Men are twice at risk of developing this disease than women. Chances of children developing it are very rare.

Diagnosis of Malignant Fibrous Histiocytoma:

It is categorized under diagnosis of exclusion ailments. Any ailment is medically termed so when its presence cannot be established with certainty through routine testing and examinations. When other reasonable possibilities are eliminated, the present condition emerges as the only possibility.

Some times, magnetic resonance imaging technique is used to diagnose this condition. It is followed by a biopsy of the suspected region. The technique involves collecting some tissue of the region and studying them under powerful microscopes to learn more about the type of cells making these structures. Biopsy can confirm the condition.

Treatment:

Surgery is performed to remove the affected tissues. Radiation therapy is used in some cases. However, application of chemotherapy for treating

pleomorphic sarcoma

is a controversial subject among the medical fraternity. The five year survival rate is 35-60 percent.